


Till the Stars Come Down

by Tabithian



Series: Light the Path [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-11 02:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4417121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason finds out about the twin terrors the hard way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Till the Stars Come Down

**Author's Note:**

> Anon requested Tim and Steph as Gotham Rogues Columbine and Harlequin and this happened, IDK.
> 
> ...I just really like the idea of Tim being Harley's sidekick because it makes me lol, and also XD, so I went that route? IDEK
> 
>  
> 
> The super amazing Kiyomisa did some incredible fan art for this fic, go check it out, it's beautiful! 
> 
> [Gotham City Sinners by kiyomisa](http://kiyomisa.deviantart.com/art/Gotham-City-Sinners-593313363)

Jason finds out about the twin terrors the hard way. He's been away from Gotham for a while, and when he sees her familiar skyline, feels a bit of nostalgia and decides it's a good idea to sneak into Selina's place the way he used to when he was younger. He's halfway through the window when he catches a flash of white from the from the corner of his eye.

Jason start to turn towards it, heart-rate kicking up even though he knows Joker's not the only clown in Gotham, that Selina's fond of Harley, but then someone kidney punches him from behind and after that all bets are off.

Jason brings his elbow back, and hears whoever got a hit on him skitter back, which gives him the opportunity to face what has to to be Gotham's littlest clown. Fucking scrawny, face done up in a red and white harlequin pattern with a little purple thrown in there. He's wearing some weird diamond pattern suit in matching reds and purples and -

He's fast.

Really fucking fast. He has to be Harley's the way he moves - either that or Nightwing has a brother he doesn't know about - and wouldn't that be equal parts awkward and hilarious.

Jason has to throw himself backward to avoid losing a few teeth. And that's when he gets a glimpse of his other attacker, blonde hair and death (or at least a serious maiming) coming at him in the form of a goddamn thorn whip, _what the fuck?_

He hasn't been gone _that_ long.

Jason's got size and sheer strength on them, but they move and act like a team. Compensating for each others weaknesses or mistakes with an ease Jason can admire, but.

And this is important, Jason's a goddamn _Cat_.

Selina raised him, trained him, and that counts for a hell of a lot. (In Gotham most of all.) 

He catches the girl around one ankle with his whip, sends her crashing over the sofa and turns in time to intercept the kid's leap for his throat – literal leap for this throat, the fuck, - and uses his momentum against him to flip him. Moves in to finish the fight, but goddamn vines shoot out from nowhere to tangle Jason's arm up before he can land a punch on the littlest clown, hand stopping inches from the kid's face. Another snakes around his throat and squeezes warningly.

“Oh, good,” Selina says, flicking the lights on. “You're getting along, we were so worried you wouldn't.”

Jason looks up then, see her leaning in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest.

“What the hell happened while I was gone?”

Selina _smirks_.

“Oh, kitten,” she says, because she knows he's always hated being called that. “So much. So, so much.”

********

Jason's been...studying abroad, he'll call it. 

Spreading his wings, Selina calls it, testing boundaries. 

Running, they both think, even though neither of them will ever say it.

(Because Joker and the things he thinks are funny, and Jason's always going to have the scars.)

“Harlequin?”

The kid tilts his head, but doesn't say anything, and the girl - 

She's watching him, narrow eyes and thinned lips.

“Harley and Ivy felt it would be best if they stayed with me,” Selina pauses, looks at Jason, “ _us_ , until they're released from Arkham.”

Everyone in the room hears the unspoken _this time_.

“What did they do now?” Jason asks, as always morbidly curious. 

Selina shakes her head, like she's oh so disappointed, but the gleam in her eyes says otherwise.

“From what I understand, they had a little run in with some gentlemen who didn't know how to treat a lady.”

Jason winces, wonders if the jackasses are still breathing, but no. Selina had said Harley and Ivy would be out in a few weeks, so. 

Probably no permanent damage. 

Maybe.

Jason sighs, looks over to the brats.

“They talk?”

The two of them have been eerily quiet. Okay, freakishly quiet, now that he thinks about it. Neither one of them uttered so much as a peep during their fight, and - 

“You're an asshole,” the girl says, and the kid - 

“Steph!”

She rounds on the kid, pokes him in the chest.

“Oh, no Tim, just because you stalked that asshole all around Gotham when you were a kid - “

“Whoa, whoa, hold on, what?” 

“Not talking to you,” the girl snaps, turns right back to the kid who looks like he wishes the floor would open up and swallow him.

Jason looks at Selina who looks wholly entertained, like even she didn't know about that fascinating - and troubling - bit of information, and sighs.

He wasn't even gone that long.

********

Selina insists Jason take the brats with him on a run across Gotham's rooftops, _Get to know, them, kitten, they're practically family_.

Harlequin is definitely Harley's, if a bit more on the sane side of things. (Mostly.)

Columbine - and Jason has to wonder at the name, but then he sees the purple in her suit, the little flowers twined in her hair and remembers Ivy - _Pam_ \- teaching him the meaning of flowers when he was younger.

Sees the way she's always pushing Harlequin, sly little smiles and wordless dares in the tilt of her head, and they're racing for this rooftop or that one, who can lose Jason the fastest. (Neither of them win that one, because Jason's a Cat, and he knows Gotham like the back of his hand.)

Jason takes a moment to rest on top of a water tower, looks down to where the brats are fighting – sparring – Harlequin tumbling and flipping and doing the impossible things Harley does, and Columbine - 

_Resolved to win_ , Ivy had said, fingers in Jason's hair, lulling him to sleep when he was sick, Selina in jail and no one else to look after him. _Like you_.

There's a story there Jason would love to know, because she's like _Ivy_ , and that.

That is not a common thing, even in their community.

She's just as fast as Harlequin, and sneaky. Loves tripping people up, and her control is impressive, but there are times she slips. When Harlequin's able to get a hit in, or has to scramble back to avoid getting seriously hurt. 

She's learning though, more than that, she's willing to learn when Harlequin touches down close to her and offers advice, suggestions. 

Jason watches them, sees the way the kid watches her, _Jason_ , and formulates plans, strategies. Training Columbine while they play, and has to wonder at that, too, because these two have obviously known one another for some time now. It's in the unquestionable trust between them, the way they work as a team, solid as anything Jason's ever seen. 

(Wonders what Batman would make of them, if he even knows they exist.)

Harlequin retreats to the supports of the water tower when Columbine almost takes his head off - _intentionally_ , following whatever bit of advice he's given her now - and Columbine tips her head up to look at Jason.

 _Smirks_.

“Too scared to come down and play with us, Catboy?”

That. 

That is _not_ his name.

He can hear Harlequin laughing, quiet, too quiet for one of Harley's, but.

“Oh, that is it,” Jason growls, flexes his hands, clawed tips catching the moonlight, just enough for a little bit of menace, and leaps.

Columbine laughs. Counters with one of her thorn whips, and then Harlequin's joining in – goddamn sneaky fuckers – and Jason.

This is.

He thinks he could get used to having little cousins.

(Maybe.)


End file.
